une assemblée des gestes (épisode 1)

Conceived through a dialogue between choreographer Christian Rizzo and curator Anne-Laure Lestage, *An Assembly of Gestures (Episode 1)* approaches the exhibition as a space of creation, a field of collective experimentation where gesture serves both as the driving force behind the process and as a method of composition.

Presented at Les Magasins Généraux as part of the CN D’s off-site programme, this first instalment in Pantin launches a series of exhibitions centred on variations in gesture. It explores the connections between choreographic, artistic, craft and sound practices. Here, gesture is approached as a subject of study, a research tool and a form in its own right. It links dance to craftsmanship, manual labour to bodily movement, and everyday life to creation. The artists brought together for this first instalment share a common focus on gesture, making, and the performative dimension of the act of making. Their practices share a sensitive approach to manual labour, the transformation and/or arrangement of materials, conceived as a performative gesture.

At its opening, the exhibition will begin with a period of action and creation. The invited artists will intervene in the space, in the presence of the public. The act of making will thus become the starting point for the exhibition. These shared gestures will mark the opening of the exhibition’s first phase. The objects, structures and installations produced on this occasion within the Magasins Généraux space will remain on display for the duration of the exhibition.

In an assembly of gestures, the performative gesture is both the point of origin and the memory of the object. It prompts reflection on the relationship between the body, matter and time: how can an action, a transformation, a movement become a work of art? How, too, can that which was done under the gaze of another continue to have an effect once the gesture has ceased? Between exhibition and process, the hypothesis of an assembly of gestures (episode 1) restores to the gesture its value as thought and connection. By articulating these practices, it questions how the act of doing can become form, and how this trace can in turn generate a new space of experience. The installations in the exhibition emerge from the performances presented on 3 April, like suspended gestures.

with the works of

Deborah Bron and Camille Sevez
Clara Denidet and Gabriel Thiney
Jordi Galí
Jacques Averna
Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust